To me, doing it gently is any way that doesn't end up involving tears or tantrums!

He's not one to bargain with. Do this first and then you can do XXX just simply does NOT work. He's stubborn and strong willed and really quite determined. All qualities that will serve him well in later life, but make our life as parents just a bit tricky!

As for daddy drinking his milk out of a cup at the same time - that might work. Daddy is the centre of his universe and he LOVES to copy what daddy does, but DH just simply won't drink plain milk. He drinks chocolate milk - which seems to have about half a bottle of chocolate topping added, plus several spoonfuls of a hot chocolate mix. Seriously, there's more chocolate than milk in there, and it's NOT a habit I want Sam to pick up!

Livinthedream, Sam is the same. Bottles are never ever ever drunk in bed. He drinks them during cuddles (at night time when DH is around he'll often switch between us a few times with his bottle hanging from his teeth), then at night he brushes his teeth and then goes to bed. He self settles really well at night, but sometimes has trouble during the day if he's a bit over-excited, but while a bottle of milk is part of his sleep routine, it's not something that happens in bed, if that makes any sense at all! Sam's language skills are also a bit slow (and we are told that this is because of the dummy and bottles), and while I know he understands a lot more than he can say, I'm just not sure he's quite at the stage where he would understand a bottle fairy or dummy fairy.

I think, knowing Sam, that we may just have to go the training system thing. It's expesive at $15 for one cup and the three tops that they move through, and I'd want two... But I guess it will ultimately save us in dental and orthodontic bills!

BW